Many companies, governments and individuals perform periodic audits. One example where an audit occurs is at toll booths. Vehicles are typically charged different rates depending on their respective sizes. A two axle vehicle is charged less than a three axle vehicle and both are charged less than a four axle vehicle, etc. Toll booth collectors must accurately collect the correct amount of money depending on the vehicle. If a toll booth collector consistently charges the incorrect amount, the municipality could see a substantial loss over a protracted period of time. Thus, an audit system is needed to check toll booth collectors and make sure they are not making consistent mistakes or worse, stealing from the municipality.
It is known in the art to provide an audit system that contains an auditing software program. This system tracks the money collected by a collector and allows for general accounting procedures to check the amounts collected. This system fails to provide a method that allows the auditor to view the vehicles as they pay their tolls. Thus, an auditor is unable to determine if the toll collector correctly collected the tolls required for each vehicle type.
The prior art also includes a system that uses a video tape surveillance system. In this system the information regarding the transaction that is generated at or by the toll collector is left separate from the video tape. In this system, there is no easy way for an auditor to look at a compilation of toll information and determine which video frames on the video tape correlate with a specific transaction. In addition, in order to view a particular transaction, the auditor must fast forward and rewind through the video tape and guess which image correlates with which transaction.
A third audit system known in the art uses a video camera to record transactions at toll booths. Typically, date time and perhaps other data, such as lane numbers, are superimposed over the video image. When an audit is performed, the auditor compares the videotape to the transactions performed. Thus, if the auditor is curious about the toll collection that occurred at 12:32 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 3, 1998, he must fast forward and rewind the videotape to that time frame to see what transpired at the toll booth. This guess work system of locating a particular time period on a videotape is very inefficient. The auditor may spend a considerable amount of time trying to locate the specific moment in which that transaction occurs. While this system does combine both types of data onto one medium, it fails to provide an efficient method for searching out specific transactions or transactions that occurred at a specific time. Like the other prior art systems, the auditor must fast-forward and rewind through the video tape.
Similarly, banking systems have a laborious audit process. Customer transactions at teller windows are basically performed via a desktop calculator that prints onto a roll of paper. For example, if a customer desires to cash a check, the teller punches in numbers relating to both the customer's checking account number and the amount withdrawn from the account. These numbers are recorded on the roll of tape and used at the end of the day to audit the amount of money in the teller's drawer against the commercial documents (e.g., checks, deposit, withdrawal slips etc.).
This system is ineffective in that it requires the teller to punch the correct numbers onto the calculator. As no one is perfect, a teller will occasionally miss-key the information, and this will make the audit process more difficult. Also, if the auditor desires to locate a particular transaction on a day, the auditor is required to scroll through the tape in a fashion similar to forward and rewind on a video cassette recorder (VCR). This is wasteful and does not always result in the auditor locating the desired transaction.
Finally, retail stores using bar code readers and advanced cash registers can save data related to a transaction. Audits in these systems, however, are inefficient as they do not provide auditors of pictures of the items being purchased to assist in determining if the purchasers were charged the correct amount of money.